Numbers as Political Allies
Numbers as Political Allies
$130.00
USDNumbers as Political Allies analyses the state sponsored headcounts in Jammu and Kashmir as public goods, collective self-portraits, and symbols of modernity. It explores how census statistics are impacted by their administrative, legal and political-economic contexts. The book guides the reader through the entire lifecycle of headcounts from the administrative manoeuvring at the preparatory stage to the partisan use of data in policymaking and public debates. Using the case of Jammu and Kashmir, it explains how our ability to examine data quality is limited by the paucity of metadata and estimates the magnitudes of coverage and content errors in the census process. It argues that Jammu and Kashmir's data deficit is shaped by and shapes ethno-regional, communal, and scalar contests across different levels of governance and compares its census experience with other states to discuss possible reforms to enhance public trust in the census.
- Uses census statistics from over seven decades along with secondary data, field interviews, and archival sources
- Offers a robust conceptual framework to analyse census statistics
- Adds data deficit as a new lens of to the study of the demographic controversies and many conflicts in Jammu and Kashmir
Product details
February 2024Hardback
9781009317214
400 pages
237 × 164 × 36 mm
0.85kg
Available
Table of Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Maps
- List of Tables
- List of Timelines
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreviations
- Part I. Introduction:
- 1. Debating Numbers
- Part II. Counting People:
- 2. Counting amidst Uncertainty
- 3. Inventing Boys and Miscounting Tribes and Languages
- Part III. Context:
- 4. Anxious Majorities
- 5. The Limits of Law
- 6. Growth as Well-Being
- Part IV. Reforms:
- 7. Reinventing the Census
- Appendix
- Bibliography
- Index.
